Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Worrow's Wonga Moment

A Wonga Moment

A very important Thanet Council 'Extraordinary' Cabinet meeting tonight to explore the circumstances and decisions that led to the present crisis and the much reported £3 million TransEuropa Ferries debt.

In theory, the opposition should be allowed to ask how the situation developed, from an adjusted repayment and debt management schedule, under the Conservatives, which saw a brief dribble of income returning to the Council, to the money drying-up and the debt ballooning to well over £3 million, in the eighteen months of the present Labour administration.

The fact that I and other councillors or all parties were not made aware of a clearly out of control debt with such important financial implications and of this size is very worrying indeed. The public might have reasonably expected that this matter would have been examined or reported (even in camera) by the Council's Finance and Audit Committee, chaired by Cllr John Worrow or perhaps flagged in his annual report to Council this month but not a word.

Instead, I draw your attention to yet another secret piece of rather fuzzy filming from last night, that forced an adjournment of Council business and illustrates where Cllr Worrow's priorities lie in discharging his public duties, gifted to him in return for his vote, by Clive Hart and the Labour administration. I will let readers decide from this video whether Cllr Worrow is the correct choice to oversee the spending of your Council Tax or instead raises very important questions over Clive Hart's judgement in giving him such an important public role.

I'm prepared to bet that based on previous experience to date the 'Transparent' Labour Cabinet will be reluctant to accept sensible cross-examination of their decisions tonight. After his celebrity video debut, I very much doubt that Cllr Worrow will be willing and available tonight to accept any questions, either on what he may or may not have known about the debt through his finance and audit committee.

I'm sure the public gallery will be crowded this evening and I think that's only right. But if you are looking for straight answers, to straight questions prepare to be disappointed.

Sadly, the Thanet Gazette have now disabled the embedding of the video, possibly because too much traffic was coming here rather than there and so you now have to go to their webpage to find it here! Rather begs the question of making something public and then withdrawing it when it becomes too public.

Only way to deal with clowns (sorry to clowns for comparison!) like this is to ignore them and not give them the publicity they are looking for. Us the electorate are sick of all this bickering getting in the way of the real issues in Thanet. If he doesn't stand down himself after this outburst then he should be shown the door. If he made an outburst like that in a court of law it would be contempt of court..why should a council meeting be any different? Surely there should be come sort of security to have ejected him. If the guy wants any respect for his cause then he needs to respect those in the council chamber whatever their views rather than throw his toys out his pram. I bet there will be no apology either. If TDC cares about Thanet or even it's own reputation and wants to salvage anything out of the transeuropa mess then they need to be united in fighting the case not some other unrelated cause.

This is the first time I have bothered to watch any goings-on at Council.It will surely be the last.What immediately comes to mind is lunatics in charge of the asylum.What an alarming display of bad tempered lack of manners by the little man with the loud voice in the pink shirt.Behaviour more appropriate to a kids playground in a comprehensive school.Anyone who voted for this nasty individual must surely be wondering what they did. Surely, on the evidence of this clip alone, he should be suspended from all Council meetings and sacked with immediate effect.Ye Gods! You couldn't make it up!Fred |Flange

As the 9:28 poster i'd like to add i saw Worrow tell someone to * off on the gazette facebook post of last night...since deleted but shows Worrows true colours yet more. How is that acceptable with TDC policies on social media? Sure it was deleted but i and many others saw it before it was.

As one of the people this man allegedly represents, other than the ballot box what recourse do I have to prevent him from holding office? An MP behaving in this way would be suspended from the house and probably lose the party whip.

Simon, you are being rather sparing with the truth. Your North Thanet committee were well aware of all Mr Worrow`s foibles at the last election, including his mental frailties, but chose to ignore them and duly appointed him as the Conservative candidate for Birchington South. You just made a similar mistake (not listening to the rank and file)in the most recent KCC elections as well.

I have a suspicion that Councillor Worrow has deliberately caused upset to justify him not attending the enquiry into the 3m loss. If it is his remit to Chair such an inquiry, it is clear that he is not up to the job abd wouldn't know where to begin. What better way to get out of it than to cause a rift by ranting and raving and then giving himself the get out clause of 'I will attend whichever meetings I choose to' ! Say what you like about Worrow, he's been canny in getting out of any awkward questions about something that is way above his head. One other point, just because he has a big mouth, doesn't mean he won the arguement. Bullies shout loudest and he is the classic bully. Pram and dummy spring to mind.

you have to ask what on earth did he achieve by this behaviour? The only thing I can see is as said above; he gets himself out of a situation he doesn't want to be in. Perhaps he even scuppers some of the questions about the finances being answered, who knows. I can't see any point to his outburst other than that...so did he do it purely for himself or on behalf of others?!

If he really can't work in the same room as the other Cllr. then he will have to stand down surely?

As I said on the Gazette FB page, there are plenty of victims of crimes who have never had an apology from the perpetrator, myself included. Why does he believe he is someone special?

Why he expects a TDC Cllr. to behave any better and apologise is beyond me when he thinks such behaviour as his is fitting of a TDC Cllr!

As he stated clearly that he will only come to meetings if he feels like it now, surely there must be something the people he is supposed to represent can do?

I'd love to see them take enough interest in this behaviour to actually hold him accountable for his actions, as anybody should be!

If he has genuine mental health issues, (as hinted at above) then there must be some help available to him; if he is too sick to see he needs help, then disciplining him in some way could be the only way to make him realise how out of order he was in behaving this way, and therefore need forthcoming. Surely, there must be some kind of sanction for this type of behaviour?

I did have a little sympathy for the man when, at one TDC meeting I attended, he was deliberately wound up by another Cllr., to much laughter from others I might add. Sadly, he's like the Duracell bunny...set him off and watch him go.instead of learning some self control and not letting bullies win by winding you up and then seeing you rant and rave and lose control. However, there is no excuse for this extreme and aggressive behaviour.

TDC needs to do something urgently to set standards of behaviour for all Cllrs - standards that can be seen to be kept as well. It's sad that Cllrs seem to need to be instructed to keep quiet in meetings when someone is making a speech - they really should possess enough manners and self restraint to sit and be silent and listen for a few minutes at a time! Having observed at meetings the absolute inability of Cllrs of all political colours to do this most basic of things, there is little hope really for proper standards of behaviour in other, more serious,areas.

How can the people of Thanet have any faith in these people who are supposed to be serving us?

I am absolutely flabbergasted about politics in Thanet district council. What a way to go on. It goes from one play to another. It's like a theater. This is just a show. Councillor wishing HIV on his collegue, councillors banning a legal trade, councillors running up the debt of TEF. By the time labour is finished with Thanet, it will be banckrupt!

Having watched the film a few times, ok, several, I am wondering if there was a motive in proposing a motion allowing Worrow to finish his remarks. Was it a put up job by the proposer and seconder and with the collusion of the rest of the meeting. They lit the blue touchpaper and..... Did the get what they wanted?

One explanation for Worrow's odd behaviour can be found in the popular TV show "Little Britain". I cannot overlook the possibility that Worrow was piqued when he discovered that he was not the only gay in the village.

Frankly I'm shocked. Having seen the clip I cannot for the life of me understand how labour are prepared to give support to such an out of control individual, especially chair of such an important committee

It is clear that Cllr. Worrow has 'issues'. For his information, Cllr. Gregory was not 'convicted' - he didn't attend court, and sufferers do not have HIV Aids, they can be HIV+ without having full blown Aids. Cllr. Worrow should get his facts right before doing a dis-service to HIV sufferers. You cannot have Aids without having HIV+ status.Cllr Worrow professes to know a great deal about many things, clearly this is not the case, manners being another example. Someone like him should never have been elected without the safeguard of a party whip to guide him. He is a loose cannon and we can only watch as he wreaks chaos leading up to the next elections when he will certainly be thrown out. Oh! I forgot ! He's not planning to stand again - as of he has any choice in the matter !!!

Sadly Worrow has done a diservice to the entire LBGT community, and clearly is a prima donna who should never be allowed near a ballot box again (either side of it) as long as he lives.

When he was elected having claimed to represent the tory party, he quickly resigned from the tory party, having (inevitably) come to the conclusion the whole party was "homophobic" before concluding that the whole of TDC was!

It is now up to Clive hart to show some Political Guts and sack John Worrow from his current Chairmanship of the Government and Audit Committee. it is not just a matter for the Standards Committee - I think he has breached every avenue of misconduct available by his Public Outburst - I just hope that some of the more rational of the Committee members take it on themselves to take him to libel law about proclaiming that everybody on the Committee were homophobic which in itself these days can be categorised as a so called hate crime -god help us and thanet -over to you Clive Hart do your duty as leader.